


An Engine, Like Coming Home

by jmtorres



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Backstory, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-24
Updated: 2005-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmtorres/pseuds/jmtorres
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I once tried to figure out to which Minbari caste Lennier belonged. This was my answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Engine, Like Coming Home

Lennier was born a worker, and so in the early years of his life, he learned the ways of the physical universe, those objects which can be seen and touched. He might have been a builder of buildings, a crystal carver--he had an eye for design. He might have been a weaver of clothing, a thread spinner--he had nimble fingers for detail. But he loved best things which did not become still when he was done with them, things for which being _finished_ did not hold _finality._

Lennier loved machines.

When the war came, Lennier became a warrior, as all Minbari became warriors, for when the heart and head agree, what choice have the hands but to follow? Lennier serviced the engines of the single-pilot Nial fighters; serviced them so well, in fact, that the engines survived attacks that killed the pilots. Then Lennier became a warrior in earnest, because it fell to the workers to fly the star-fighters they had cobbled together from salvaged pieces of engines and hulls.

After the war, Lennier was less enamored of machines. Their clamor did not please him, for in it, he heard death screams. He found time and reason for stillness, and eventually a place for it. This is how he became Lennier of the temple, how he traveled from worker to warrior to worshipper.

This is what Lennier meditates on before he works on Mr. Garibaldi's motorcycle, because putting together an engine is like coming home, and coming home means he must walk the path to find his place again.

**Author's Note:**

> Also archived on dreamwidth: <http://jmtorres.dreamwidth.org/703341.html>.


End file.
